The central America visit with brief visits to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala had come to end. I had to be down in the southern hemisphere and the best way to get a decent flight was to fly up to America, LA or San Francisco would suit. As my brother now resides in San Francisco it was an easy decision, would see the family for a long weekend and then get a direct flight down to Auckland.

I called in to see the family and was surprised how my niece and nephew had grown. It was probably 3 years+ since seeing them properly and they had grown up. It was great to be amongst family and enjoyed hanging out together, my sister in law chauffeured me around Sonoma visiting vineyards and classic roadside restaurants, also taking me to Reyes Point whale watching the next day.

Point Reyes lighthouse and whale watching station –

The highlight of the stay was watching nephew Jack smash a couple of balls during baseball and thus winning the match for his team.

I had a couple of nights staying in central San Francisco next to Union Square, in one of the many backpackers in Mason Street. The open top bus tour is always a must in any new city so a 48hr pass was bought to get around the city and over the golden gate bridge. It also included a night tour and 3 different walking tours.

The iconic Golden Gate bridge –

In fact its actually international orange in colour, held together by over a million rivets and the two main cables holding the bridge up are actually 27,000 individual smaller wires bound together in each cable, unwound they could go around the world 5 times.

Classic cable car rides up/down the hills of San Francisco –

 

Civic Center, now earthquake proof after a huge project underpinning every column –

Steep streets of San Fran –

The classic Clam Chowder ! Bread bun filled with clam chowder, delicious !!

Had a great two days in the center of San Fran, riding the cable cars, riding the subway, walking the streets, eating the food down at Fishermans Wharf, only way to end it was the last meal – calamari and shrimps takeaway looking out to Alcatraz !!